WASHINGTON -- The United States on Tuesday announced a successful test of its missile defense system in the wake of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile launch last week.The Missile Defense Agency said it conducted a test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system earlier in the day by air-launching a ballistic missile target over the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. The test came a week after North Korea carried out its first test of an ICBM believed to be capable of hitting th

South Korea's new government will seek both growth and fairer wealth distribution under the main theme of "good growth," a presidential official said Tuesday, hinting it will also break from the country's longstanding preoccupation with numerical targets."The new government will pursue good growth," the official told reporters, declining to be named. "This means we will no longer follow the pattern of putting forward growth targets and pushing for growth-centric policies

South Korea's new chief ICT policymaker said Tuesday that he will push forward tough reforms as the country must deal with various challenges under the fourth industrial revolution."The Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning should be reborn so that the ministry that can prepare for the future amid the changes," You Young-min said during his inauguration ceremony.The government has been engaged in various projects to cope with the latest revolution that is characterized by a fusion of cut

South Korea will continue to work to expose the grim history of Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women to the international community as a lesson learned from history, the foreign ministry here said Tuesday."Our government's coherent stance is that we will continue efforts to make the comfort women issue a lesson from history and give the next generations the truth (about the issue)," Cho June-hyuck, spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a press briefing. The remarks

POHANG -- A ceremony to break ground on a UN global education center, initiated by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, was held at Handong Global University in the country's southeastern port city of Pohang on Tuesday, with Ban attending. UNAI Korea is building the Ban Ki-moon Global Education Institute to help realize the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and nurture related global experts. The UNAI is short for the UN Academic Impact, an initiative launched by then-UN chief Ban in Novemb

South Korea's foreign ministry on Tuesday launched a task force to spearhead organizational reforms aimed at strengthening its overall capability and efficiency.The task force is led by Oh Yeoung-ju, a special advisor to Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, and comprises three divisions in charge of personnel, organization and renovation, according to the ministry.The task force will carry out an analysis of the ministry's organization and structure and collect opinions from officials and outside ex

Citibank Korea, the South Korean unit of Citigroup Inc., has proposed slightly reducing the number of branches it plans to shut down, an industry source said Tuesday, in a bid to avoid a backlash from its labor union. If the labor union of Citibank Korea agrees on the proposal, the number of branches facing closure will be cut to 90 from 101 in South Korea. Last Friday, five branches of Citibank Korea were shut down and 30 more branches will be closed by the end of this month. (Yonhap)The move h

South Korean brokerage firms plan to provide a joint authentication service based on blockchain technology, an official said Tuesday, in the latest move to further strengthen security.The pilot project -- which involves 25 securities firms and five blockchain companies -- is set to begin within this month, said Lee Sang-gi, an official handling the issue at Koscom Corp., the system manager of South Korean bourse operator Korea Exchange. (Yonhap)Lee said the brokerage firms plan to provide full-s

South Korean stocks traded higher late Tuesday morning on the back of gains in technology firms and mobile carriers. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 8.53 points, or 0.36 percent, to 2,390.63 as of 11:20 a.m. Tech shares continued to advance, with No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix gaining 1.63 percent and LG Electronics increasing 0.99 percent.Top market cap Samsung Electronics edged up 0.08 percent.Mobile carriers were also among winners, with industry leader SK Telecom moving up 1.

North Korea has yet to fully secure the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile as it remains still unknown whether the country's recently fired ballistic missile successfully re-entered the atmosphere, a lawmaker said Tuesday quoting the spy agency. (Yonhap)North Korea claimed that it has developed an ICBM that could carry a large-size nuclear warhead, but it appears to be an unsubstantiated boast, Rep. Yi Wan-young of the Liberty Korea Party said after a parliamentary meeting with

South Korea's exports shot up nearly 40 percent in the first 10 days of this month from a year earlier on robust overseas demand for semiconductors and ships, customs data showed Tuesday.Total outbound shipments reached $14.3 billion from July 1-10, up 38.5 percent from $10.3 billion tallied over the same period last year, according to numbers compiled by the Korea Customs Service.The sharp increase was led by a 574.4 percent on-year surge in exports of vessels and a 50.4 percent gain in chips,

The number of foreigners visiting South Korea could drop by as many as 4.69 million this year, following a diplomatic row with China over the deployment of a US missile defense system here, the state-run tourism promotion body said Tuesday.During a meeting with local governments and district tourism offices, the Korea Tourism Organization said visitor numbers could shrink up to 17.24 million, or 27.2 percent on-year, if the current trend continues until the end of this year.  This file photo tak

South Korea ranked second among emerging economies in the amount of stocks purchased by foreign investors during the first six months this year, market data showed Tuesday.Foreigners net bought $9 billion worth of South Korean stocks during the January-June period, the second largest only after Taiwan's $9.4 billion, according to the statistics by Yuanta Securities.India came in third with $8.5 billion, followed by Brazil at $1.4 billion, Indonesia at $1.3 billion, the Philippines at $408 millio

President Moon Jae-in again urged the opposition parties Tuesday to approve the government's request for an extra budget, calling it an urgent issue imperative to the economic recovery."At the Group of 20 summit, all international organizations, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, diagnosed the global economy as being in a recovery phase," the president said in a Cabinet meeting, according to pool reports.Moon returned home Monday after his five-day trip to Germa

The Peruvian government has called on the North Korean Embassy in Lima to halve the number of its staff as part of steps to implement the UN Security Council sanctions against the North's nuclear and missile programs, a US broadcaster reported Tuesday. According to its report submitted to the Security Council on June 28, Peru called for the reduction of the number of diplomats in the North Korean mission in Lima from six to three in a letter sent to the North Korean ambassador there April 2, Voi